My sebright has lost her little birdy mind!

[sfilichia]

Hi all.

We have 7 bantam hens and no roos. We started with 2 and added 5 more 2 years later. Our oldest sebright, who is 4, has gone nuts. She is prancing around with her tail fluffed in a fan and aggressively attacking our buff brahma. We have removed Killer (our Brahma) from the coop as her head was bleeding pretty bad this morning. We are keeping her wound clean and keeping her away from the sebright.

In the meantime, what can I do about my rooster-hen? She is a terrorist to our other hens, especially the more friendly birds.

 

[TTracy]

Yikes! If your other birds get along ok, then you may want to remove her.

 

[sfilichia]

Right now we have the injured hen isolated so she can heal. She got attacked pretty bad. Her head is a bit of a mess, but she is eating/drinking/etc.

It appears as though the psychotic hen is acting as a protector for our cochin who is broody right now. These two were our first hens so they pal around anyway. She doesn't seem to be attacking anyone else at the moment, but her rooster hen behavior is very much there still.

 

[sfilichia]

So our buff brahma went back to the coop after her little head healed up a bit and we brought Reggie, the psycho golden sebright inside. The first few days she was really angry but calmed down after about 4 days solitary (we let her out in the run, she just wasn't allowed to hang out with her friends). Last night we let her free range with the other hens and everything was fine, although, Killer steered clear. Today I thought I would test the waters and put everyone in the run. I watched them for about 5 or 10 minutes and all seemed fine. I came in the house for less than 5 minutes and went back out to the sound of a hen screaming. Killer was once again, being attacked by Reggie. I took Killer in, she had a small, bloody spot that I cleaned up, but she was otherwise fine. I put her in the coop alone and removed Reggie from the rest of the hens. I then put the rest of the hens in the coop where our other golden sebright, Aurelia, started attacking Killer. Both Golden Sebrights have it out for this sweet hen. So now both of my sebrights are in a large container in my bathroom, sulking. After I removed them from the coop, everyone was very calm and just sort of sat down and hung out quietly.

Golden Sebrights are menaces. Has anyone else had issues with their goldens?

 

[Lopi1234]

Can't comment on sebrights, but I just found a home for my Araucana rooster. Since then, My olive egger hen is puffing out her feathers and walking around like a rooster. She lays 1 egg a day, but is definitely the boss over all the girls. She even used to run after and attack the rooster I gave away when he was feeling frisky. I still have 1 rooster. So while I can't comment further on your girl, I am going to sit back and watch how this plays out. I guess your seabrights are in need of another house! Good luck and let me know how you solve this...I may need to follow in your footsteps!
Edited to fix my spelling mistake!

 

[sfilichia]

We are going to be building a second coop, a smaller one, for the two goldens, and maybe a cochin that is particularly fond of one of the goldens. Chicken society is complex. Forget Meercat Manor, just go out to the coop for all of your wildlife drama.

 

[Muffinburgler]

I wonder if it's a breed thing. Back when my sebright was younger and we didn't have roosters, she was determined to be the man of the flock. She started crowing every morning (she still does it if I forget to open the coop door before 8) and she would mount the hens her size. She calmed down once we ended up with a rooster again.

 

[sfilichia]

I am thinking that it is a breed thing. None of our other hens act like that. The second coop should solve our problems without us having to get a rooster. Chickens are weird

 

[Hayduke27]

I had a golden sebright cockerel, and he was very aggressive. He attacked people who visited my house, and even me a few times. He was also a very loud, frequent crower. He had to go to freezer camp. Good luck with your goldens!

 

[sfilichia]

Thanks, Hayduke27. We are going to build a smaller coop and keep the sebrights in it. The hens aren't aggressive towards us, just one chicken. They are naughty ladies, for sure.